Other people's comments

I am going to start this by saying my preschooler who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder is sweet, smart, loving, and amazing but it is a lot of hard work every moment of the day. I am so frustrated with how people supposedly close to us minimize the challenges and behaviors we experience and say well in the end (after all the services we have "work") he will be "normal". I'm so frustrated and offended and having a really hard time sorting through my feelings in all this. Please tell me that it gets easier. I fear that as I start speaking my mind more often, we are going to lose our entire family / friend support system.

Is anyone else experiencing this or do the people in my life just suck?

If you experience this, do you set people straight? I just about lost it when someone said that he will be normal in the end. He's already normal. Maybe I'm overreacting....

Comments (31)

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "well, he looks a lot better now like normal."

I'm currently pregnant with #2, and one person told me "Congrats! I hope it works out this time." 😡

I usually tell them that DS (dear son) is normal, just different from other kids. And we're not racing to catch up to other kids. It would be nice if we continue to see improvements, but not end of the world if we don't progress as quicky as other kids.

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "w...

Last edited
09/13/2018

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "well, he looks a lot better now like normal."

I'm currently pregnant with #2, and one person told me "Congrats! I hope it works out this time." 😡

I usually tell them that DS is normal, just different from other kids. And we're not racing to catch up to other kids. It would be nice if we continue to see improvements, but not end of the world if we don't progress as quicky as other kids.

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "w...

Last edited
09/13/2018

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "well, he looks a lot better now like normal."

I'm currently pregnant with #2, and one person told me "Congrats! I hope it works out this time." 😡

I usually tell them that DS is normal, just different from other kids. And we're not racing to catch up to other kids. It would be nice if we continue to see improvements, but not end of the world if we don't progress as quicky as other kids.

My child makes very little progress.
While I heard many people say “he’ll be fine, he seems normal....”
I don’t hear that anymore.

I think people are just trying to make you feel better but use a poor choice of words.

My son is 9. Just yesterday I was talking to someone and we were sharing life challenges. When I said my child would repeat a phrase for 5 hours straight and it drove me bonkers he says “all kids do that”

Yeah, no they don’t. But I think it was just him trying to make me feel better-not really trying to minimize our issues.

My child makes very little progress.
While I heard many people say “he’ll...

Posted
09/13/2018

My child makes very little progress.
While I heard many people say “he’ll be fine, he seems normal....”
I don’t hear that anymore.

I think people are just trying to make you feel better but use a poor choice of words.

My son is 9. Just yesterday I was talking to someone and we were sharing life challenges. When I said my child would repeat a phrase for 5 hours straight and it drove me bonkers he says “all kids do that”

Yeah, no they don’t. But I think it was just him trying to make me feel better-not really trying to minimize our issues.

I do think that's what they are trying to do sometimes and I appreciate where it is coming from but it drives me crazy because it minimizes our challenges and has me second guessing my feelings and makes me wonder if maybe I'm just a failure at being his parent - and yes I know that is a me problem. And sometimes it just makes me crazy mad because some of our days are so hard and I know from having older children this isn't what all children do.

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "w...

Last edited
09/13/2018

Yea we get that a lot too. We have people asking "so is he normal yet?" Or "well, he looks a lot better now like normal."

I'm currently pregnant with #2, and one person told me "Congrats! I hope it works out this time." 😡

I usually tell them that DS is normal, just different from other kids. And we're not racing to catch up to other kids. It would be nice if we continue to see improvements, but not end of the world if we don't progress as quicky as other kids.

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